Chapter 145: Chapter 145: My Rules Are the Rules

In one day, he purified seven catties of Sparrow Spirit Ore.

This was equivalent to 0.7 units of Spiritual Power, or 0.7 pieces of Broken Spirit.

All in all, this was a considerable haul.

By the time the sun set and his shift ended, Chu Mu had gotten to know most of his colleagues in the warehouse, thanks to his deliberate efforts to befriend them.

Including Chu Mu himself, there were eight workers in total. Four of them were old-timers who had worked at Li’s Ore Materials for several years.

From what Chu Mu observed, these four were solely focused on making money. They were the ones refining ore day and night, and their Cultivation had all reached the Qi Cultivation Second Layer or higher.

Of the remaining three, one was named Sun Xing. He had joined Li’s Trading House half a year ago, was a man of few words, and had long since reached the Qi Cultivation First Layer. He, too, was singularly focused on earning money.

As for the other two, one was named Han Feng—a perfectly normal name for a sycophantic lackey. He hardly did any work all day, instead spending all his time fawning over the Young Master and Steward Wu of Li’s Trading House.

The last one was Hou Cheng, who had joined Li’s Trading House a few days before him. He had also been at the Qi Cultivation First Layer for a long time.

Out of the eight of them, he was the only newcomer to the Immortal Path.

Hou Cheng was the only one he could really find common ground with.

As for the question of whether the Spirit Ore’s corrosion had any hidden dangers, his colleagues were clearly unsure. The answers he managed to gather were all ambiguous.

Hou Cheng, the only person he could properly talk to, was also a recent arrival and obviously didn’t know either.

Since everyone was clueless, Chu Mu didn’t press the matter further. After all, he wasn’t close enough with any of them for that.

Not long after his shift ended, he returned to his room.

He calmed his mind, sat cross-legged, and focused all his attention inward.

The Magical Power of a Qi Cultivation First Layer cultivator wasn’t much; in fact, you could say it was very little.

But the quality of the Magical Power itself was very high!

Two or three wisps of Magical Power were enough to complete the refinement of one catty of Sparrow Spirit Ore.

Of course, having only just entered the Qi Cultivation First Layer, he hadn’t accumulated more than a few wisps of Magical Power in total.

Chu Mu even felt that with his current amount of Magical Power, he probably couldn’t even cast a single spell.

However, having little Magical Power had its advantages. At least... it recovered quickly.

With only a few wisps in total, if any were consumed, they could be fully restored in a matter of minutes.

Likewise, since there were only a few wisps, Chu Mu could observe them with great clarity.

The corrosion from the Sparrow Spirit Ore was yin and cold in nature, while his Magical Power was Fire Attribute Magical Power. The two were as incompatible as fire and water.

Logically, there should be no room for the Sparrow Spirit Ore’s yin-cold aura to survive, let alone hide.

Chu Mu had observed this over and over again, countless times, and the result was always the same!

The Magical Power and the yin-cold aura were completely incompatible.

And as for the ’God’...

Chu Mu carefully felt the existence of his Divine Sense. His focus, however, was not on the Divine Sense itself, but on the conviction rooted deep within his ’God’.

That sliver of sharpness from his Sword Technique!

A Sword Technique of Refined Skill.

The principle of ’lifting the heavy as if light, and the light as if heavy,’ which should have been illusory, had manifested in reality.

This stemmed from conviction, and conviction was rooted in ’God’!

The deeper he trained in his Sword Technique, the more profoundly Chu Mu understood this point.

And that sliver of sharpness from his Sword Technique, rooted in his ’God’, seemed to be growing more and more distinct.

The feeling was... very ethereal.

Every time he gripped his blade, Chu Mu could clearly feel his conviction taking root in his ’God’, as if it were imperceptibly influencing it.

’Is this influence... different from the nourishment that Spiritual Qi provides? Is it... adding the sharpness of my Sword Technique to my ’God’?’

Chu Mu wasn’t sure. He had been baffled by it before.

But today, based on his observations, it seemed the other Cultivators took slightly longer to dispel the corrosion than he did.

This wasn’t a misconception; it was an observation he had made and cross-referenced with data!

’What’s so special about me right now?’

’Spiritual Radiance?’

The Spiritual Radiance Value was precious. He couldn’t possibly use it to dispel the corrosion every time. Even today, on his first exposure, he had only used the Spiritual Radiance Blessing to observe if there were any hidden dangers.

If it wasn’t Spiritual Radiance, then his special quality could only be that imperceptible sliver of a blade’s sharpness.

Chu Mu glanced at the Sword Technique Skill Level on the Light Curtain Panel, his eyes flickering slightly.

’A Sword Technique of Refined Skill... this feeling is still too abstract.’

For instance, he suspected that the blade’s sharpness was responsible, but he had no way to observe it and confirm his theory!

"Perhaps, the next realm after Refined Skill..."

Chu Mu murmured to himself. The Sword Technique had already shown miraculous properties, and his talent for it was excellent. This was an unknown path he clearly had to explore.

’It’s even possible that a path like this already exists in the Cultivation Immortal Realm, and I just don’t know about it.’

With that, Chu Mu once again suppressed his stray thoughts, closed his eyes, and slowly began his Qi Cultivation Realm practice.

The Flame Decision—or rather, Qi Cultivation Realm practice in general—wasn’t all that different from his past Qi and Blood Cultivation.

One was the slow grind of absorbing the Essence Qi from grains and meat, refining it into Qi Blood, and accumulating it.

As for the current Qi Cultivation Realm practice, the two words "Qi Cultivation" made it all very clear.

Breathing Spiritual Energy, refining it, and transforming it into Magical Power—it was that kind of slow, grinding process.

In this process, every step was dominated by the Divine Sense.

Without a doubt, Qi Cultivation placed a huge strain on the Divine Sense.

At his current level of Cultivation, he could practice for a little over two hours at most before he had to stop, clear his mind, and give his Divine Soul time to recover.

Otherwise, his Divine Sense would be over-exhausted, which would be more harmful than beneficial.

As for trying to train his Divine Sense through over-exhaustion, Chu Mu had already experimented with that.

And the results of his experiments could only be described as not worth the cost.

’According to my understanding, training is always accompanied by nourishment.’

’It’s just like Qi and Blood Cultivation. You train the body, but you nourish it with Medicinal Power and the Essence Qi from grains and meat.’

’Nourishment plus training—that’s a normal cycle.’

But when it came to over-exhausting his Divine Sense, he had no way to nourish it. Spiritual Qi was miraculous, but...

For his body, he could manipulate Spiritual Qi, nourishing and refining it in a planned, targeted way.

But he had no understanding of the Divine Soul, so he obviously didn’t dare to experiment with it as recklessly as he did with his body.

Without a sufficient and clear method of nourishment, excessive consumption of Divine Sense would only be asking for trouble, and the losses would outweigh the gains.

Chu Mu reckoned that the Cultivation Immortal Realm must have Cultivation Techniques for training the Divine Sense. The principle would be no different from Qi and Blood Cultivation: a clear understanding of the Divine Soul, combined with a distinct training system and an external nourishment system.

Two hours passed, and it was now deep into the night.

Chu Mu opened his eyes. The fatigue from two hours of cultivation was etched between his brows.

When he glanced at the minuscule progress of his Flame Decision on the Light Curtain Panel, that fatigue deepened.

Chu Mu let out a long breath and, with a thought, made the Light Curtain Panel disappear.

The Flame Decision’s tortoise-like progress was truly demoralizing!

Out of sight, out of mind!

He casually pulled a book out from under his quilt, leaned against the headboard, and began to read, using it to distract himself.

The book was from the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace. The man from the Law Enforcement Team had told him that once he reached the Qi Cultivation Realm, he would have to register if he lived in Jade Emperor Valley, and he would also need to learn the valley’s rules...

He had, of course, already registered. Chu Mu reached out and a small, white card appeared in his hand.

The card was about the size of an ID card from his past life. The material seemed to be some kind of paper, but it felt cool and smooth like metal to the touch.

If he tried to probe it with his Divine Sense, he was blocked by a thin film of light. Clearly, this thin card was also a type of Artifact Creation.

He had received it from the Jade Emperor Valley Government Office after registering. It was something akin to the secular world’s household registration yellow ledgers.

On the front of the card, on the left, an image of Chu Mu had been engraved by some unknown means. On the right were the name "Jade Emperor Valley" and Chu Mu’s own Cultivation level.

The back showed a bird’s-eye view of the entire Jade Emperor Valley, so exquisitely detailed it looked real.

According to the Cultivator who issued the card, if his Cultivation advanced while he was in Jade Emperor Valley, he would have to register again to get a new identification document.

And the book in his hand contained the rules of Jade Emperor Valley.

The book had dozens of pages, and every page was filled with rules!

The strictness of Jade Emperor Valley’s rules was laid bare before Chu Mu’s eyes in this book.

As he turned the pages one by one, Chu Mu’s understanding of the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace, and even the entire Cultivation Immortal Realm, gradually broadened.

After nearly half an hour, he slowly put the book down. By then, his earlier fatigue had transformed into an indescribable mix of complicated feelings.

He felt that perhaps one sentence could describe this book of rules called the Sun’s Law.

And that was... everything that could make you money was written in this Sun’s Law!

Or rather, everything profitable was controlled by the power that ruled Jade Emperor Valley. They had established rules, forbidden things by law, and suppressed any dissent with absolute might.

For example, the law stipulated that within the territory governed by the Sun Family, all Spirit Veins, Ore Veins, and Treasures of Heaven and Earth belonged to the Sun Family.

Although this law had a huge loophole—for instance, if Chu Mu really found some Treasures of Heaven and Earth in the wild, he naturally wouldn’t pay any mind to this bullshit rule.

But... what do Cultivators depend on for their existence?

They exist because of Spiritual Qi!

And Spiritual Qi came from Spirit Veins!

And Spirit Veins, being so large and obvious, could not possibly escape the Sun Family’s control.

According to what Chu Mu had gathered today, the Spiritual Qi of a Spirit Vein could be sealed. Take Jade Emperor Valley, for example. If its Tier Two Spiritual Vein were left unchecked, the surrounding thousand miles would surely be a land rich with Spiritual Qi!

Yet even within Jade Emperor Valley itself, the Spiritual Qi could be described as thin.

And the reason for that?

It was because the Tier Two Spiritual Vein in Jade Emperor Valley had its Spiritual Qi sealed by the Sun Family, supplied only to the various residences in the Marketplace according to specific allotments.

And the residences in the Marketplace were for rent only, not for sale!

Outside a Spirit Vein, a Cultivator could act without restraint, but a Cultivator ultimately had to practice Cultivation.

And to practice Cultivation, one could only enter the various Marketplaces, rent a residence, and hand over Spirit Stones to be supplied with Spiritual Qi!

Only by going to a Marketplace would there be enough Cultivators to create a market, satisfying their needs to buy and sell.

Clearly, the model of governance in the Cultivation Immortal Realm was different from the secular world. Whether it was a Sect or a Clan ruling a region, they all just occupied the Spirit Veins and then used them as a foundation to establish a Marketplace.

If Cultivators wanted to practice, they could only gather around the various Marketplaces, thus having no choice but to accept the rule and regulations of the Marketplace’s controllers.

And compared to the somewhat abstract rules for the areas outside the Marketplace, the rules within it were clearly far more practical and strict.

After all, the existence of Spirit Veins meant that Cultivators were inevitably bound to them in many matters.

Including taxes, criminal law, Forced Labor, commercial law, and land...

Every aspect was a link in an interlocking chain of laws and rules, forming a great net that covered every facet of the Marketplace.

The intention was very clear: outside the Spirit Vein, the profits were small and the trouble was great, so it wasn’t worth managing!

Inside the Marketplace, the goal was to turn all Cultivators into consumables, serving the interests of the Marketplace’s rulers.

As for the interests of the Marketplace’s rulers, those were not to be infringed upon in the slightest!

Extracting souls to light lamps, utterly obliterating the spirit!

Among the various punishments, the lives of Cultivators were cheap and disregarded.

Clearly, as far as this book of laws was concerned...

The law’s intent was not only clear and easy to understand, but also shamelessly, nakedly explicit...

...